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HHS CHIEF-IN-WAITING GETS SENATE FINANCE HEARING THIS WEEK – Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, will come before the powerful panel Wednesday afternoon. She’s poised to win bipartisan support after sailing through her hearing before the Senate HELP Committee last week. Only the Finance Committee will vote on whether to send her nomination to the full Senate. The hearing is slated for 2:15 p.m.

THE HALF-BILLION-DOLLAR EXCHANGE BUSTS – Four states eager to implement their own Obamacare enrollment systems have rung up a federal tab of $474 million — and counting — on exchanges that are so dysfunctional they may be scrapped altogether. Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oregon have each overseen the creation of irreparably damaged exchanges that have forced them back to the drawing board. Although only Oregon has gone as far as to default to HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange, the others are taking steps in that direction but it’s unclear whether they’ll tap into even more taxpayer dollars to make the move. http://politi.co/1nwYkvm

--COULD HAWAII BE NEXT? Although state officials say no, the CEO of Hawaii’s largest insurer urged them to scrap their malfunctioning system and either join the feds or let people buy plans directly from insurers, the Associated Press reports. According to the AP, Michael Gold, CEO of Hawaii Medical Services Association, said the state should pursue the switch immediately. “The real question is how do you, in a sense, get out from under the Connector, and use the assets that Hawaii has already to get to the aims of the Affordable Care Act?" Gold said, according to the AP. http://yhoo.it/SPvSsb

Good Monday morning and welcome to PULSE, where we’re starting to wonder whether all that popcorn we bought for the Burwell confirmation hearings was a good investment. What’s all this bipartisan comity we keep hearing about?

“Dream about PULSE together again.”

DEMS: GOP’S BENGHAZI FERVOR A SIGN OBAMACARE ATTACKS FALTERING – Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown made the claim Friday, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Then it was DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who griped on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday about the makeup of a Republican-run panel to investigate the Benghazi attacks: “We have had such a precipitous drop among Republicans even in their fervor for repealing the Affordable Care Act, that they are clearly doing this to drive their turnout,” she said. Her sparring partner, Rep. Michele Bachmann, brushed off the suggestion that the GOP is losing its fight on the health law.

POLL: SELF-FUNDED INSURED ON THE RISE — A surging number of people report having Medicaid or self-funded insurance, according to a new Gallup poll, which found that as the nation’s uninsured rate plunged, these Obamacare-driven categories of coverage soared.” This increase is likely a direct result of the state and federal health insurance exchanges opening, which gave Americans the opportunity to compare various types of health insurance coverage and purchase individual and family plans,” according to Gallup, which drew its results from interviews with 14,000 adults. http://bit.ly/1sBWIQS

** WellPoint Thinks improving access to care, strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and driving conversations about the future of America’s health care system will help transform health care for all. To see what else we think is good for America’s health care system, visit ThinkWellPoint.com **

NO OBAMACARE EMPLOYER MANDATE? NO PROBLEM, STUDY CONCLUDES — New research by the Urban Institute, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, suggests scrapping Obamacare’s employer mandate would have little effect on the number of insured and would quiet the acrimony in the business community over the measure. It gives the Democrats a potential bargaining chip for Republicans as anticipated battles over the fate of the law play out in Washington, but it also adds fuel to GOP arguments that the mandate on businesses shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Pro’s Brett Norman reports: “If the twice-delayed employer mandate is dropped altogether, just 200,000 fewer people would have coverage in 2016, the report says.” The mandate has already been delayed twice and modified.

--Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly jumped on the study to boost his call for the repeal of Obamacare. “As the [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation] report makes clear, Obamacare’s mandates are likely to create ‘reduced wages’ with costs ‘absorbed by the workers,’ with ‘low-wage employees [bearing] the greatest brunt’ of the law’s penalties,” McConnell said in a release.

LONGTIME HILL AIDE LEAVING TO STUDY JAPAN HEALTH SYSTEM — Jennifer Friedman, a veteran Democratic Hill staffer handling Medicare issues for the Ways and Means Committee, is leaving to study the Japanese health care financing system, her colleagues have informed PULSE. Friedman’s trip is sponsored by Hitachi, and she’ll be a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. “Jennifer's expertise and guidance have been invaluable during her tenure on the Committee,” said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the committee. “Her analytical skills and commitment to making Medicare run as well as possible for taxpayers and beneficiaries are unrivaled.”

ANNIVERSARY OF ABORTION PROVIDER’S MURDER CONVICTION — One year ago from tomorrow, abortion provider Kermit Gosnell was convicted for killing babies that were born alive. Now a group of filmmakers are making a movie about his crimes after surpassing their crowdfunding campaign goal of $2.1 million Friday. “Gosnell is serving several life sentences but the media basically ignored his crimes and his trial,” they write. “The censorship of the Gosnell story ends now.” http://bit.ly/1dLViQI

--Also, on Friday, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution supporting all legislation that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is also using the anniversary of Gosnell’s conviction to call attention to his own 20-week ban on abortion. He’s pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for side-by-side votes on his bill and a bill written by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that would prohibit states from enacting legislation with extra requirements for abortion providers.

STATE WEEK — Which state is posting it’s 2015 health insurance exchange rates today? Which state’s Medicaid director is leaving in June? And which state’s Democrats are threatening to derail a tax bill unless they get a vote on expansion? Find out in the latest edition of State Week. http://politico.pro/SSo4Ga

WHAT WE’RE READING

Is the insurer “bailout” argument making a comeback in GOP circles? The Morning Consult reports that Republicans are ready to bring it back: http://bit.ly/1mPTwO4

The New York Times spotlights the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal group behind the challenge to the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirement: http://nyti.ms/REQ7YN

The Coloradoan reports on the prevalence of patients with mental health needs among hospitals’ “frequent fliers”: http://noconow.co/1jQAc3L

Rural hospitals are struggling with Medicare cuts and reductions in government subsidies, The Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/1iHDiqD

Former U.S. HHS general counsel Michael Astrue opines in the Boston Herald that the Massachusetts exchange website problems are akin to the failures associated with the Big Dig: http://bit.ly/1iHR3FM

The LA Times takes a look at the outsized role insurance agents played in driving up Obamacare enrollment: http://lat.ms/1iHRO1z

Health insurance rates are going up — but not through the roof — in Virginia, the first look at 2015 rates, according to The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1nDFNLz

LIVE TODAY, POLITICO’s newest series ALL POLICY IS LOCAL — with its first coverage area focusing on ENERGY. The series covers the 2014 midterms like no one else, examining the intersection of politics and policy and the impact on industry and community. See full coverage including the must-read piece by Andrew Restuccia reporting from Colorado on the closely watched Senate race and the fracking fight here: http://politi.co/1iH8vFK.

** WellPoint Thinks strengthening America’s health care system — and helping control costs — starts with improving access to care through technology, strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and enabling the next generation of physicians to drive conversations about the future of health care. Through telehealth efforts, like LiveHealth Online, consumers have an affordable and convenient way to connect with primary care doctors via live video. Our Enhanced Personal Health Care program strengthens the doctor-patient relationship, with more than 41,000 physicians and 8 million patients participating in the program to date. And for the next generation, our American Resident Project brings together medical students, residents and young physicians to drive new conversations about the system’s future. To see what else we think is good for America’s health care system, visit ThinkWellPoint.com. **